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The website run by partner Ticketmaster, a company owned by US-based Live Nation Inc., had opened to allow members of the public in Britain to buy tickets that had been sold back to organisers LOCOG at face value.

LOCOG left no doubt who they blamed for the temporary suspension.

"We have told Ticketmaster to suspend the resale system while they investigate some issues customers have been experiencing," they said in a statement.

"We want buying and selling Olympic and Paralympic tickets through Ticketmaster to be a good customer experience and so we will re-open the site once Ticketmaster have resolved these issues."

The problems, with the website (www.tickets.london2012.com) slow to update and appearing to offer tickets that were then revealed to be no longer available, triggered widespread complaints on Twitter.

There were also problems with online ticket sales last year when the website was initially unable to cope with a surge in demand.

Organisers said on Friday that "lots" of tickets had been resold before the suspension with demand far exceeding supply.